Use Google Libraries 1.1.2

Friday, January 7th, 2011

A new version of my Use Google Libraries WordPress Plugin is available for download from the Plugin Directory, along with the full documentation and support forum.  It mainly improves support for the upcoming WordPress 3.1 ((tested against RC1 and a recent SVN snapshot)) but it is still compatible with WordPress 3.0.

It seems that this is a popular plugin, as I’ve managed to end up listed as #517 in the WP Top 1000.  I’m glad so many people have found it useful.  If  you’d like to support the development of the plugin I sure would appreciate it.

Posted in technology | 5 Comments »

Use Google Libraries 1.0.6

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Required Upgrade for Users of WordPress 2.8

I’ve updated my Use Google Libraries plugin to support WordPress 2.8.

  • Disables script concatenation in WordPress 2.8, since it seems to have issues when some of the dependencies are outside of the concatenation.
  • Persists flag to load scripts in the footer in WordPress 2.8

If you’re using WordPress 2.8, you’ll want to upgrade ASAP.  Download it from the Plugin Directory (or use the auto-update feature). If you find it useful, feel free to leave a tip.

Posted in technology | 1 Comment »

Use Google Libraries 1.0.5

Friday, March 20th, 2009

Updated WordPress Plugin

I’ve updated my Use Google Libraries plugin. This version implements a pair of suggestions from Peter Wilson.

  • Use Google Libraries should detect when a page is loaded over https and load the libraries over https accordingly
  • Use Google Libraries no longer drops the micro version number from the URL. The reasons for this are twofold:
    • It ensures the version requested is the version received.
    • Google’s servers set the expires header for 12 months for these urls, as opposed to 1 hour. This allows clients to cache the file for up to a year without needing to retrieve it again from Google’s servers. If the version requested by your WordPress install changes, so will the URL so there’s no worry that you’ll keep loading an old version.

What are you waiting for? Download it from the Plugin Directory (or use the auto-update feature in WordPress 2.7+). If you find it useful, feel free to leave a tip.

Posted in technology | 2 Comments »

New WordPress Plugin: Use Google Libraries 1.0

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Speed Up WordPress Using Google’s AJAX Libraries API

I’m happy to announce my new WordPress Plugin Use Google Libraries. This plugin loads a number of standard Javascript libraries used by WordPress from Google’s AJAX Libraries API CDN. What’s that?

The AJAX Libraries API is a content distribution network and loading architecture for the most popular, open source JavaScript libraries. […] Google works directly with the key stake holders for each library effort and accepts the latest stable versions as they are released. Once we host a release of a given library, we are committed to hosting that release indefinitely. […] We take the pain out of hosting the libraries, correctly setting cache headers, staying up to date with the most recent bug fixes, etc.

Or, in plain English, it should make your site load faster. It could also make other people’s sites load faster too, if they’re also using this plugin.

Supported Libraries

Any WordPress themes or plugins that load any of these libraries via enqueue_script() should automatically take advantage of Use Google Libraries.

Why not give it a try?

There’s nothing earth shattering here, but my goal was do one thing and do it well. You can read the documentation and download the plugin from the Use Google Libraries page in the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Posted in technology | 4 Comments »

Links of Interest (August 25th 2008 through September 28th 2008)

Sunday, September 28th, 2008
jQuery and Microsoft
When Microsoft started adding some of the often requested features to their ASP.NET AJAX Client API they realized that jQuery (my personal favorite javascript library) already did what they wanted. Rather than reinvent the wheel Microsoft will be shipping the standard, as-is jQuery with full intellisense support in Visual Studio.

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The Creative Process
“For me, ideas stream through my head at a frantic pace. I feel like a bear trying to grab a salmon. If my paw misses its target, that salmon is gone for good. I don’t dwell on it. I just lunge for the next salmon.” Scott Adams (Dilbert) discusses ideas, and how he sometimes forgets he’s already used them.

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Tip: Using a background image on an image
Using CSS to create layered images (with a fun animated example). Simple but effective.

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Fresh Out – PDF Version
Free fun little mini-comic from Natalie Metzger. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll really want some cookies! Ready for printing.

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Sizzle: John Resig has a new selector engine
Ajaxian brings word that John Resig is working an a new Javascript selector engine, which is expected to replace the one in jQuery. So far it’s less than 4k (but it doesn’t support IE yet). “4x faster in Firefox 3, 3x faster in Opera 9, 1.5x faster in Safari 3 than the other major JavaScript libraries.”

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Posted in Links | Comments Off on Links of Interest (August 25th 2008 through September 28th 2008)

Links of Interest (April 10th 2008 through April 22nd 2008)

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Matthew Wayne Selznick Signs Book Deal
Author and Podcaster Matthew Wayne Selznick signed a deal with Swarm Press to re-issue his novel “Brave Men Run” in paperback. Congratulations Matt!
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Take notes during phone calls with friends and family
One of those “that should have been obvious” suggestions. I’ve conditioned my brain to filter out most things that aren’t useful to me right now. This doesn’t mean I’m not interested in people’s anecdotes, and schedules, it just means I’m unlikely to remember them without some reminder.
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Ajaxian Featured Tutorial: Hacking transparent PNG support into IE6 with IE PNG Fix, CSS and jQuery
Ah, IE6. I’m pretty good at getting it to do what I want, but it’s very existence makes most of the things I have to do harder than they should be. This tutorial deals with one of the harder issues, PNG transparency in positioned background images.
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YouTube – Sigler Book Tour (Seattle Q&A) Part2
In the second part of the video Scott covers such diverse topics as Sci-Fi Channel’s lack of foresight and how when it appears he has made a mistake it is actually sabotage by J.C. Hutchins.
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Sigler Book Tour (Seattle Q&A) Part1
I’m not lucky enough to live near any of the book stores Scott Sigler was signing at, but luckily Natalie Metzger captured this video of one of the Q & A sessions.
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Posted in Links | Comments Off on Links of Interest (April 10th 2008 through April 22nd 2008)

Links of Interest (January 28th 2008 through January 30th 2008)

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
jQuery Validation plugin overview
Examples of how to use the jQuery Validation plugin 1.2 to provide unobtrusive Javascript validation to forms.
The Dissing of SF
Ever have someone ask you for a favor and simultaneously insult your career? Science Fiction author Robert J. Sawyer had this happen twice in one hour, and he posted his responses.
JavaScript Pretty Date
John Resig has released a prettyDate Javascript library that can take strings like “2008-01-28T20:24:17Z” and turn them into “2 hours ago”. It works standalone or as a jQuery plugin.
JavaScript Memory Leak Detector
Paolo Severini of Microsoft’s Global Product Development team has released a utility to help find Javascript memory leaks in IE. It can be set to detect things that would leak in IE6, things that would leak in IE7, or actual leaks.
Getting HTML 5 styles in IE 7+
Possibly the most interesting thing to come out of the X-UA-Compatible discussions was this method for allowing IE7+ to apply styles to elements it doesn’t support.
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Write to Done
A friend (thanks Kate) recommended this spin off of zenhabits.net which is billed as “Unmissable articles on writing. Twice weekly.” So far it’s living up to it’s promise.
MD044 – Stan Lee Interview
Veronica Belmont interviews Stan Lee on Mahalo Daily. I never get tired of seeing interviews with Stan Lee. Maybe it’s his voice.

Posted in Links | Comments Off on Links of Interest (January 28th 2008 through January 30th 2008)

Links of Interest (July 21st 2007 through August 3rd 2007)

Friday, August 3rd, 2007
Official iPhone Tool
This looks somehow familiar.
Math Book Helps Girls Embrace Their Inner Mathematician
Interview with Danica McKellar (Winnie Cooper from “The Wonder Years”) about her new book: Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math and not Break a Nail
Sandbox Designs Competition » The Designs
Gallery of entries for the Sandbox Designs Competition. All entries are the same XHTML styled with CSS.
Fisher-Price recalls 1M toys
If you have any Dora or Sesame Street toys in your home you want to be aware of this. We do. A lot of them. Oddly the online recall only lets you return six items. Not sure exactly what they expect us to do with the rest.
AjaxRain – Ajax/Javascript/Dhtml examples and demos to download
Interesting site. Lacks search. I recommend using the “Tag Cloud” to navigate, but be sure to scroll down after clicking a tag because it looks like nothing happened.
A Series of Unfortunate Events ::: NOW IN PAPERBACK!
Are you made fainthearted by the work of Lemony Snicket? Does the thought of strange new siblings unnerve you? Your answers likely reveal the following brief video to be ill-suited for your personal use.

Posted in Links | Comments Off on Links of Interest (July 21st 2007 through August 3rd 2007)

Links of Interest (July 2nd 2007 through July 11th 2007)

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007
LOLTrek
Star Trek + LOLcats. You has want laugh? This be super funny.
How To Write The Great American Novel
Informative instructional film (no, not really, but it’s funny).
uncluttr
Derek Gaw’s wonderful search front end to Amazon.com (currently in alpha).
New Books, late June 2007
Locus Online’s listing of new SF/F/H books for late June 2007
Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars
This may be the best page on all of Wikipedia.
Open standards for social networking
Interesting commentary Marc Canter. from I know I wish all these things out there talked to each other better and/or supported OpenID.
jQuery 1.1.3: 800%+ Faster, still 20KB
The newest version of jQuery is available with 80+ bugfixes, increased performance, expanded selectors, and more.

Posted in Links | Comments Off on Links of Interest (July 2nd 2007 through July 11th 2007)

Links of Interest (May 24th 2007 through May 31st 2007)

Thursday, May 31st, 2007
Feed Your Television
Google Reader has added support for the Nintendo Wii (yeah, I’m bit behind on noticing this one).
Potter buffs may soon be able to visit Hogwarts
J.K. Rowling OKs a Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, FL. That could be fun. Unfortunately most of the article is about the upcoming book 7, but it sounds like it would be part of Universal.
Sci-fi writers join war on terror
Homeland Security calls on Sigma, a group of Science Fiction writers (including Jerry Pournelle, Arlan Andrews, Greg Bear, Larry Niven and Sage Walker) put together to advise government officials.
squirrels with lightsabers
as adviertized
Programming: How to build a Firefox extension
Occasionally I go looking for an extension to do something, fail to find it and start thinking I should write it myself. Maybe next time I will.
How To: Maintain threaded view in Thunderbird
I’ve been looking for this for years and I didn’t even know it.
Interface elements for jQuery
“Interface is a collection of rich interface components which utilizes the lightweight JavaScript library jQuery. With this components you can build rich client web applications and interfaces with the same simplicity as writing JavaScript with jQuery.”

Posted in Links | Comments Off on Links of Interest (May 24th 2007 through May 31st 2007)